The V-Day Series: Romance from the Ashes

It's not as bad as it sounds... It's beautiful if you ask me. Hello again. I know, I'm days behind. It's been quite an interesting few days coming up to Valentine's Day. I enjoyed the ride. I enjoyed the series. And now, let's close this thing out and get back to life, eh?

I've been pretty busy and pretty keyed up if you're wondering; remember a few posts ago? When I was saying what was on my heart to say to the young lady I ran into at the local drugstore? Well, in the final days approaching Valentine's Day, I made up in my mind that I wanted her to be my Valentine. You read about that too no doubt; it was my last post. It was a hard decision, but I finally convinced myself to follow through on it.

It took me days to figure out what I would say to her. In those days, I talked to an old (okay... two years, lol), eccentric (self-proclaimed bipolar schizophrenic) friend of mine and he said something significant: "F--k a Valentine's Day. I'm not gonna make a big deal and try to find a girl just for one day of the year." My apologies to the sensitive ears, lol. But hold on to that...

When he said that, I thought about my stances on Valentine's Day in preceding years: much the same. Last year this time of season, I was playing Andre 3000's "Happy Valentine's Day" as loudly as possible, repeating the final parts of the song. Listen to the song; toward the end he's not speaking nicely about V-Day, lol. In spite of it, I was still determined to make the connection.

For the record, sorry folks... I'm not gonna tell you what I planned to say, lol. But I will tell you I planned to say it with flowers. I was going to see her on Monday, give it a shot, and celebrate with her that evening as well as Valentine's Night. The Lord works in mysterious ways...

Monday, I went to the plaza. I had in mind to buy a single pink rose, symbolizing friendship but a little bit more than friendship. In the store, I decided also to grab a snack; I'm a healthy eater when I can afford it, so I went to the veggie section to grab some baby carrots and maybe a bag of salad. As I was looking up and down the shelves, I happened to glance to my right. There beside me a little further down was ANOTHER friend of mine who I hadn't seen since my mother's funeral. I saw her first and thought to myself, "It can't be..." But when our eyes met, it turned out to be true! We instantly walked up and embraced each other.

AFter that, we talked for what felt like 20 minutes. We both have our problems, and it was nice being able to share with an understanding person. By the end of it, she left me her number and invited me to kick it with her sometime.

Wow... Still, I was set on doing what I had fought myself so hard to do in the first place. I sought the pink rose, but ended up purchasing something else. The drug store was right down the walkway. I took a deep breath and drove toward the drive through; I had planned to surprise her in the window as she worked.

But before I got there, I noticed there was only an elderly woman working the window. It couldn't be...

I parked and went inside. Sure enough, she was off that Monday. I was outta luck.

I dropped my head and decided to make a few rounds. Went to visit my aunt and my cousin and then I headed for home. "I'm gonna call ______ when I get home and ask her what's up for tomorrow... I get the feeling this was no coincidence." Lo and behold, when I got home, my father was waiting for me in the driveway.

I love my father, even though we have our differences. We decided to go out to eat. However, I had planned to be asleep that whole afternoon before I went to work, from about 3-9. Hold on to that...

We ate, eventually he left, and I made the call. "Hey, whassup. THis is ______. I was calling to make sure this was the right number, lol. And I also neglected to give you mine today. My house_____ cell______. And actually, I was wondering... If you're not busy tomorrow, maybe we could kick it or something. Hit me back when you get this message...Peace." I went to work, anticipating for the entire time her response.

I was geeked all night, even though I was physically tired. I ended up stayign longer than anticipated, but I wasn't deterred by the time they finally let me go. I flew home and went straight to the answering machine; no response. "No biggie; I'll hit her up later today." It was about 7:15 and I was wasted. I didnt realize how wasted as I tried to play a video game to relax.

"Man... cleaning up will hafta wait. I'll get at it about 12." I remember lying down on the couch around 7:3o. I moved to my bedroom at about 7:45 and crashed. When I woke up it was still 7:45... but this time it was dark outside. "What the... NO!"

Yep. I slept away the entire day. Remember, I told you to hold on to my dad's visit? It caught up with me, huh. "The answering machine!" I dipped into the kitchen... she still didn't call me. I didn't think it was very pliable to try to arrange a Valentine's Day rendezvous at 7:45 pm the day of. I was shot.

So what then... And that's when my bipolar schizophrenic friend's words came back to me like a wind of salvation: "F--k a Valentine's Day..." Actually not that part: "I'm not gonna make a big deal and try to find a girl just for one day of the year."<-------That's the part.

And all of a sudden, I realized that I was really the winner. Take a look:

1) I found the courage to even approach the girl I wanted. If I did it once, I can do it again!...
2) I had a chance encounter with someone totally unexpected and unforeseen! Is THAT romance?! PLUS it could develop into something later...

So maybe I missed out on another year of the one-day-fling thing. But is that really missing anything significant? So here was my Valentine's day: a tragic flight of courage, chance-meetings, complications, good advice from strange sources, excitement, hope, anxiety, disappointment, and closure. It was romance like a phoenix from the ashes, ladies and gents. Something worth telling you about.


So, we've reached the end of the V-Day series. We fought alongside Valentine with the forces of love against Cupid and the forces of lust and ended in a stalemate called ROMANCE. I can't wait til next year...

"Now boarding... ROMANCEXPRESS is now leaving V-Day. Let Romance Continue..."

All LoveB-J